Black Panel Mugs .............. overprint?

[bms]

Hi All, just seen the thread and comments. The reason for the description on the website is that as the mug is black then any colour lighter than black won't be seen on the mug. Its like trying to print a colour onto a black tshirt - you won't (or shouldn't be able to see it).

The guidance is fairly generic to all suppliers of black panel mugs even if it isn't explicitly stated on their sites. These have been sold in the UK and Europe for many years now and the advice hasn't changed as to print area and blead around image.

The mugs however have to be fully coated as sublimation spray coating can't be applied to just a White area of a mug so in practice the whole mug is coated as a normal mug would be in a normal spray process.

[AdamB]

Hi All, just seen the thread and comments. The reason for the description on the website is that as the mug is black then any colour lighter than black won't be seen on the mug. Its like trying to print a colour onto a black tshirt - you won't (or shouldn't be able to see it).

The guidance is fairly generic to all suppliers of black panel mugs even if it isn't explicitly stated on their sites. These have been sold in the UK and Europe for many years now and the advice hasn't changed as to print area and blead around image.

The mugs however have to be fully coated as sublimation spray coating can't be applied to just a White area of a mug so in practice the whole mug is coated as a normal mug would be in a normal spray process.

Thanks for the input Martin but I have to disagree with you. The mugs may be black in colour but they are not true black so colours lighter lighter than true black show on the mug (as shown in the image above).

I know it's impossible to have a mug that is true black in colour but going by your explanation brown (which is lighter in colour than black) shouldn't show on the mug - but it does, so does a lighter brown and after checking the mug again so does orange.

I understand what you are saying about colours on black shouldn't show but the reality is that the mug is not black but grey and a very, very dark grey (nearer to the black end) ............... but not black or I wouldn't have had problems.

[bms]

There's not a lot we can so about the shade of black but I hear what your saying. As I said, the advice on printing is generic. Perhaps others that have printed on these can comment whether their bleed around the white panel was visible. It's the first time I've heard of this comment. Someone on the DSF had a full wrap black mug from us the other day. Had that been printed?

[JSR]

The print has always been noticeable on black panel mugs (both the old wide-panel and the BMS small-panel). The few I've done haven't come back to me from customers - mainly because I think they realise that they wouldn't get small quantities of black mugs with photos on them any other way. Either that or they just don't look close enough.

The problem was worse on the wide-panel mugs because it was often necessary to make the bleed area larger due to alignment issues. With the small-panel mug, you can keep the bleed pretty tiny in comparison.

The most common "problem" with black panel mugs is that people often want logos on black and you have to explain that black ink printed on the white panel will not be the same as the black of the mug. Invariably, though, they'll accept that as they wouldn't get their black mug from elsewhere any better.

All this said, I sell only a few of the black mugs. I've sold about 50 of the wider-panel ones, but only a handful for the small-panel ones. I think this is because people want the image to be on both sides of the mug, and the small-panel black mug doesn't allow this. I have an order in now in which someone's sent a design intended to wrap around the mug because they haven't read the product description.

[purpledragon]

ive tried these in various colours though i bought enough for samples only cant rem where from, but i think theres a message there buy samples first I thought they were ok bit too much hasstle than they're worth. I did get an over bleed though to be honest i planned for it so it looked okish, The problem i could see was customers who wanted their photo on them it can get tricky if you have to cut heads off to fit the entire patch.

[Ian M]

Adam, why not try a soft edge to the overlap as this may blend in a bit better with the black on the mug. In theory this should allow more of the colour of the mug to show through that bit more.